The Sound of Crickets
by harvestgeek
Summary: Chapter two up. The only thing holding Jill back from telling Karen that her feelings run deeper than friendship is Rick, Karen's obsessive boyfriend. Oh, and the fact that Karen has no idea that Jill is in love with her. Shoujo ai.
1. Karen, the beautiful

This is a shoujo-ai story between Jill, the farmer, and Karen, meaning that it is about love between girls, basically.

Don't read it if you don't like that kind of stuff. I have no idea how long I want it to be but I _do_ appreciate the support from readers. A warning ahead of time: I like to spasmodically change the POV from 1st to 3rd every so often. It will stay 1st for the first few chapters, and I will warn again when the time comes for 3rd person.

Taken place in the FoMT game for girls, or BTN; same thing, practically. I don't own Harvest Moon, Nintendo, you know all that jazz.. Enjoy. :)

---

Her smile. Her laughter. How brightly her hair shone in that mid-afternoon sunlight.. and how could I forget those emerald green eyes? Everything about Karen attracted her to me. We got along together so well, and we shared everything - well, mostly everything. We did almost everything together.

On this particular day, I decided to enjoy her beauty in the form of spending the afternoon fishing out on the pier at Mineral Beach. And on this particular day, she had looked more beautiful than ever as we laughed together in the heat of the summer sun.

There was _nothing_ I would change about her.. except for one minor, tiny detail.

Rick, her clingy, obnoxious, bright orange-haired poor excuse for a boyfriend.

Don't get me wrong. He's a great _person_. Funny, loves his family, active. But I don't like him - no, that's an understatement. I _despise_ him. Obviously because I had deep feelings for his girlfriend, Karen. Everyday I felt myself fall more and more in love with her. But.. she didn't know. He didn't know. No one knew. No one even knew that men didn't attract me. But I wasn't always like this, you see.

When I met Karen, we clicked immediately. I started to talk to her more and more and we started to do everything together. We became best friends almost instantly. I always had Rick's competition though. Rick was already her best friend to begin with, and he never liked me because he always thought I would take away Karen's time from him. I thought it was awfully childish, but I brushed it off and I never gave a second thought to it.

I didn't.. until one day, Karen announced that her and Rick were official. Judging from how jealous I felt when she said that, I realized that my feelings for Karen were developing into something more than just friendship.

And that's when Rick's presence started to really bother me. But what was I to do? Karen obviously never thought about me romantically. She was head over heels her crazy, obsessive boyfriend. Secretly, I hated it, yet quietly, I supported her whenever she decided to gush to me about him. I hated hearing about him, hearing about how he talked about marrying her, hearing about much he _loved_ her. The only time I enjoyed hearing about him was when they fought and Karen thought about dumping him. As bad it sounded, I secretly _wanted_ them to break up.

But I knew, somewhere in my heart, that _that _was never going to happen. Another sad, cliched tale of unrequited love, you ask? My heart wrenched at the mere thought of it..

I tried to enjoy my time with her, nonetheless. There was still time to sway her somehow. He hadn't proposed to her yet. So I still had a chance.. a chance to make her fall in love with me..

Somewhere between my angry thoughts of Rick and my hopeful dreams of having Karen fall in love with me, a fish suddenly came flying towards my face, causing me to react by falling over sideways into the water.

"Jill!" I heard Karen shout from atop the pier. "I'm so sorry! I couldn't control the fish..."

"It's okay," I said, coughing up some water. I looked at her and we both started laughing.

I would change_ nothing_.. nothing at all..

---


	2. Husband? What?

It was the middle of summer when Karen and I made plans to eat at the inn on her day off from working at the supermarket. It was quality time with my best friend.. the girl I secretly loved. And with Rick hogging most of her free time and work hogging up most of mine, I was in no position to give up any quality time.

I met Karen at the inn in the early afternoon and she greeted me with a hug. "Glad you're here, I'm starving!" she said and led me to a table in the back. "I already ordered because my stomach was yelling at me. But Ann will come around soon to get your order. I have water for us in the meantime!"

"That's cool," I said, taking a seat. "So how was your morning?"

"It was okay.. Rick came by."

I felt my insides churn and I tried not to let my face show disgust at the mention of hid name. "Oh. What did he want?"

"To apologize for yesterday," she replied. I immediately remembered how she told me of their spat yesterday. Their fights never lasted more than a day, but I still got my hopes up everytime she told me of their fights. And whenever they fought, it was something ridiculous, like his clingy behavior or his childish attitude. Goddess, I hated him. "And.. he told me that he couldn't take me to the Fireworks Festival this Sunday."

My eyes lit up with interest. "Oh? Why can't he?"

She looked down and sighed sadly. Every time Rick made her sad, I always felt bad for secretly wishing that they would break up. But at the same time, I wanted to explode. I wanted to say everything I had on my mind, every last thought I had about Rick, and how I thought he wasn't good enough for her. Thought? No, I _knew_ he wasn't good for her. She could do so much better. Namely, me.

Bah.

But if I ever told her that, she would probably not talk to me anymore.

"I guess he got in trouble for forgetting the feed the chickens last night, so his mother was furious at him. She punished him by saying he couldn't go to the Festival. Which sort of sucks, because I was hoping I would be able to spend that night with him. So I guess I'll just stay home that night.."

My blood boiled. Did her life revolve _only_ around Rick?! I was about to snap at her, but I bit my tongue so hard that I could feel the metallic taste of blood seethe out. "Well, who said you couldn't enjoy the Festival _without_ him? Or with a_ friend_?" I tried to suggest without having my anger show through.

As I saw a slight smile form from her lips, I casted my anger aside. "Would you go with me, Jill?" she asked sweetly.

_Of course I would, my love! I'd do anything for you! I want to spend every waking moment with you! I want to run away with you and grow old with you! I - _"I'd love to, Karen," I said calmly with a friendly smile, and took a sip from my glass of water.

"Hey Jill!" Ann greeted cheerfully as she walked up besides our table. "Karen, your cheese fondue will be ready in a moment. What can I get for ya, Jill?"

"Um, a bowl of salad will do just great.." I answered.

"Coming right up."

As soon as Ann was out of earshot, I opened my mouth up to say something to hopefully deter away from the subject of the Fireworks Festival, but Karen beat me to talking. "You didn't already have plans with anybody else, did you?" she asked.

"No, I didn't," I replied.

"Really? No guy has asked you yet?" _Drats. I was trying to avoid that. _"Jill, we've talked about a million crazy things, but you've never actually told me if you have ever liked any guy here in the village.."

My heart started to beat faster. _I was hoping she would never inquire about guys.. _"Nobody asked me," I said curtly. I tried to keep my answers as short as possible as to, hopefully, try to end the subject of men.

"That's crazy! You're such a great person though," she said. I smiled inside. "Well, I bet you haven't tried talking to anybody. You have any clue who might sway your heart a little? You know... any of them that you think are cute?"

I took a sip from my water and gulped.. hard. "I'm not interested," I nervously responded, fidgeting with the collar on my shirt. It suddenly got really warm in that inn. I fought with myself. _Should I tell her I don't prefer men? What would she think? Would she still view me as her best friend? What if she finds out I have a mad crush on her? What if -_

"I bet any of these bachelors in town are dying to get with you!" she exclaimed. She circled the rim of her glass of water with her forefinger and looked at me dreamily. I wanted to melt. "You know, I've seen Cliff flirt with you a little bit here and there. What do you think of Cliff? Got the hots for him?"

"No, I don't really -"

"You're lying!" she accused playfully, smiling. "I _know_ you do. You don't want to admit it. You might not _really_ like him now, but I bet I can set you guys up. They don't call me cupid for nothing!" She flipped her hair behind her shoulder. I felt sweat form on my brow. Was she serious?

"I've never given a second thought about him, actually. Actually, the first thought was never even given," I countered.

"You don't have to hide it, Jill. Haven't you ever noticed when he flirts with you?"

Suddenly, I wanted Ann to come with my salad. And fast.

"I've thought of him as a friend, and only that. I don't see any romantic potential in that bum. And I had no idea that friendly conversation was flirting."

"Of course it isn't. But the _way_ he talks to you.. he's _always_ blushing and he's _always_ nervous. Can't you notice these things, Jill?"

_Did I want to notice those things? _I almost asked.

Thankfully, Ann arrived just on time with Karen's tomato soup and my caesar salad, and I dove right in and started eating. Karen didn't get the hint that I wanted to stop discussing boys from the way I impatiently started eating, and kept on insisting about hooking me up with Cliff. "C'mon, Jill. It _has _to get lonely at the farm _some_time. I bet it's about time for you to get on that husband searching!"

I choked on a cruton at the mention of the word _husband_. Coughing frantically, I rolled over onto the floor and started to beat the ground with my fists. "Oh.. crap.. Jill?! Ann, Doug! Somebody, please! Jill's choking!" Karen cried, jumping to my side.

Ann rushed in and grabbed my choking, writhing body off the floor and started to perform the Heimlich maneuver. With a painful squeeze from her arms, the cruton flew out at high speed and broke the window across the room. I was released from her grasp and I toppled over onto the floor, as my knees were weak.

"I'll pay for that," I gasped through a strained breath.


End file.
